This brings up a point and gives me a great idea. Why don't we get people to make nude patches for Barbie Pony Princess (fake game, but you know what I mean...some E game targeted at kids)? Then get the media to cover it and make them reclassify Barbie as Mature:)
So instead of scoring a game out of 100, or 10, or whatever, movie reviewers solved this by using stars! Brilliant!/sarcasm
Having 4 stars could just as much represent perfection as a game that got a 10. It is just as arbitrary. It is really hard to take this guy seriously after that. I still read on, though, but I should have stopped. This article was of the form: 1) Put up out of context quote. 2) Rant about it in a way less intelligent than other people already have.
If this is all it takes to be an author on Kotaku, then I think a bunch of Slashdotters should apply because I read better posts here every day.
I give his article a 3.457 out of 10. He got a bonus.037 for attempting to be funny and -.455 for random pictures that had nothing to do with the article.
This is the first double standard you have noticed on here? Come on, you have a 2-digit id!
It isn't uncommon on here to dislike business practices and still like the product. For example, a typical Slashdotter likes their iPod but doesn't like the vendor lock-in on the iPhones. This site is pro-Linux and many people don't appreciate the monopolistic crap that MS often gets away with. But in the gaming market, they are actually the little guy trying to break in to a market controlled by two giants. People are still quick to criticize them for their horrible hardware failure rate...but on the other hand, applaud them for admitting it and changing their repair policy so that they fix their mistake.
So yeah, I don't think it is unreasonable to despise MS for what they do in the OS market but still have a 360. If you really get down to it, if you refused to buy from anyone who had questionable business methods, you wouldn't be able to own a console period.
No, I don't understand. Please give me the law that they are breaking. I don't think Valve is thinking of the poor Thai's. I think they are trying to maximize profit (as any company that wants to stay in business does). The only difference in this case than any other is that Valve actually has the ability to enforce the region through steam.
Unfortunately for you, you can't region lock your consulting. But if you could, I am sure you would.
Now that they have a stable version that is static, the possibilities are endless. Conceivably, they could now print these things as books! I imagine this will be a lot of content, but they could split it up in to multiple books for each letter of the alphabet. That way, we can have access to this information 24/7 without the need of the Internet! Truly, amazing times we live in.
How is the Wii controller not just an incremental improvement? It still has buttons, d-pads, etc. They just added motion sensing to it and changed the shape to optimize it for that.
That's stupid. Does Valve actually hire from the poorest countries? You aren't allowed because they said you aren't. And they have technical means of enforcing that.
The orange box was a good deal at the regular price. I don't feel ripped off in the least.
A company is allowed to charge you what they want for a product. The list price of many things can be negotiated down. They sold a region locked version for cheaper in one area and a non-region locked game in another country. There is nothing illegal about it. Everyone is hypocritical in some way. But I don't see how Valve trying to maximize their profits is hypocritical though. That is what a business is supposed to do. Maybe you should look up the definition of hypocrite. It is saying one thing and doing another. They never said they weren't going to region lock. Taking advantage of globalization while making a product that you can't import isn't hypocritical at all. It is what everyone would do if they could. Steam allows Valve to do this.
Don't like it, don't buy it. I don't think they will notice or care. They make a good game and sell it at a very reasonable price.
It's not just because I like Valve...if it was any company that did this I wouldn't be upset. People don't even give them a chance to react. I do think there are moral issues involved in this. Morality is doing what is "right". Obviously, you may define this differently than I do...but I think it is right to pay the company what they ask for. If they sell it cheaper in another market and want to restrict it to that market, then they can choose to do so. And now they just have a mechanism to enforce that. I think we also have very different ideas of what is common sense.
Do we really need an analogy to understand this? They bought software from somewhere they shouldn't have. It ended up messing up their account. Give Valve a few days to come up with a technical solution instead of crying bloody murder about DRM. You have avenues to avoid this...that is, don't buy their product if you don't like it. Unfortunately for you, Steam "just works" for the great majority of people and they happen to make damn fine games as well. I think I'll go relax by playing some TF2 now.
See, I don't think you even read the post. 1) I stated that I used to feel the way that person did, so I was showing that I understood their emotion, thus validating their opinion (though I don't thing I really need to bother with such touchy feely stuff) 2) I did not tell them to get used to it, I told them that they just had to accept it like I had to. This term is not going away (particularly with editors using it) and it is such a waste of anger to be making a big deal about this anymore (because as I stated in the second post, it is a valid term). Probably futile on my part...but when I am bored I don't mind going after the highly modded SKU whiners or the people who complain that they don't like reading about X on Slashdot.
It is amusing to me that you attack my maturity. If there was some sort of magical maturity meter that measured post maturity levels, I am afraid you wouldn't like the results. So let's go to pretend world where I did what you said and told the guy to "get used to it". If this is so heinous (and this seems to be a large part of your complaint), then you invalidate any credibility you even think you have when you say the same to me. Of course, I didn't even say that so your smug reply is laughable.
Let me state this though: I understand your point. It is a bad thing to just accept everything that is thrown at you because "that's the way it is". But what your post does is remove the context of the situation and adds in things that are unacceptable. I am not saying "accept things that aren't going to go away". I am saying accept that a term that is commonly used is going to continue to be used and it isn't hurting anyone.
One more thing from your post. With a Masters in CS, I thought pretty poorly of business people. Now that I am taking business classes it really opens my eyes to how things really work. It isn't a dubious distinction to do well in the business world and be business savvy. It is pretty much a requirement if you want to go anywhere in any career. Here's my gift to you: get over your bias and try to see the value of social groups other than your own.
What the hell are you talking about? Reading comprehension (or if you are in this situation, comprehension in general) is not your strong point. People tried to rip off Valve by buying region locked keys from Russia or Thailand where they are sold extremely cheap. Valve shut them off for being the little jerks that they are. The people then went out and did the "right thing" and bought the game legitimately through places like Circuit City. But when they tried to activate it, they already had a CD key in its place and were unable to install it on that steam account.
Now, I am not sure why you can't remove the CD key. I imagine they did it for piracy regions so people couldn't try multiple cd key to see which ones worked. This seems reasonable to me. This is a story of cheap people trying to rip off a company and getting screwed over because of it. I don't feel sorry for them at all and am confused why Slashdotters defend these morons. Yeah, I understand DRM is bad and annoying. But from a corporate standpoint, this looks like Steam is a DRM success because it is able to block people who try to abuse the system. The people can still play their game on another Steam account or get their money back one way or another.
The only thing that looks bad for Valve at this point is their customer service. Should people who now rectified their wrong doing by buying a copy be able to play? I think so. But right now it may not be technically feasible with the way the software is designed. I'd give Valve a few days to analyze the problem and decide how (or if) they will fix it.
There are a lot of arguments about the accuracy of that site. But ignoring those, did you even look at the link you posted? The PS3 has one spike where it shoots way up and then drops immediately. The 360 had a big spike as well (only slightly lower than the PS3), and the spike is much more fat (i.e. it sold a larger number for a longer period of time). From those charts, the 360 looks to be doing much better.
So you are comparing the use of a word that people find annoying to rape and murder. Are you completely nuts? You do understand there is more than a "slight" difference, right? If you don't, seek mental help.
The thing is, as much as people don't like the term, SKU is just another way of saying product or model. It is a business term that is appropriate. And while Slashdot isn't business oriented, I am learning very quickly that it helps to speak their jargon if you want to do well in the business world.
But call me names all you want. At least I have the guts to post what I believe and not hide behind AC.
I used to agree with you. Now I am just tired of people like you complaining about the word. It has been showing up for months. People have been whining about it for months. The term is not going away any time soon so just learn to accept it like I have.
Actually, I'm fine with SKU as long as I don't have to read the word meme. That one seems to have gone away thankfully.
Wow...what a rosy little world you live in. Pirating games means that everyone is going to make great profit! Pirates are such nice people that when they don't pay for a game and like it they become an advertising agency that just pours money in to the company. It also keeps these pirates off the streets where they would be causing trouble. I never knew how fantastic pirating could be!
Fact of the matter is...if companies don't at least make some attempt to make it difficult to pirate something, then everyone would do that instead of paying for it. Then games just would not be made.
If you are too poor to buy games, then you really should be doing something about that rather than sitting around playing video games. You even give a good alternative (GameFly) to pirating.
Things that were cool to us when we were young seem better than things now because we can't get as excited about things as adults as we do as children. Children today might find Pong novel, but it isn't something that they will want to go back to again and again like people who were brought up on it. All these articles come off like a bunch of old people sitting around complaining about the youth today. You are now officially old. Move over and let the next generation decide what is fun for themselves.
Except that really isn't accurate. As soon as a few hundred people get in the same section of the galaxy the servers are unable to handle it. So, it's great that it can have 50k on a shard, but they would be better off having more servers and less people on each so the game would be more playable.
It's real draw is that it is a space MMO. It has a more difficult learning curve than other MMOs. It has somewhat harsh consequences. It is basically a playground for people who enjoy griefing. The single player part of the game is more boring and repetitive than any other MMO. And the multiplayer consists of sitting at gate and ganking people who have no chance. At the higher end you get large battles where whoever is lucky enough to get out of the lag first will win.
So yes, it appeals to the elitist prick portion of the population. Or people who wish they made Excel in to a game.
We are talking about gaming. I don't think you need to specify an OS when talking about PC gaming. You can assume it is Windows. If you are talking about gaming on a different OS..then you need to specify WINE, Mac, etc.
Slashdot Mirror
This brings up a point and gives me a great idea. Why don't we get people to make nude patches for Barbie Pony Princess (fake game, but you know what I mean...some E game targeted at kids)? Then get the media to cover it and make them reclassify Barbie as Mature :)
How long does it take you to do grammar and prose for 3 sentences? :)
So instead of scoring a game out of 100, or 10, or whatever, movie reviewers solved this by using stars! Brilliant! /sarcasm
.037 for attempting to be funny and -.455 for random pictures that had nothing to do with the article.
Having 4 stars could just as much represent perfection as a game that got a 10. It is just as arbitrary. It is really hard to take this guy seriously after that. I still read on, though, but I should have stopped. This article was of the form: 1) Put up out of context quote. 2) Rant about it in a way less intelligent than other people already have.
If this is all it takes to be an author on Kotaku, then I think a bunch of Slashdotters should apply because I read better posts here every day.
I give his article a 3.457 out of 10. He got a bonus
This is the first double standard you have noticed on here? Come on, you have a 2-digit id!
It isn't uncommon on here to dislike business practices and still like the product. For example, a typical Slashdotter likes their iPod but doesn't like the vendor lock-in on the iPhones. This site is pro-Linux and many people don't appreciate the monopolistic crap that MS often gets away with. But in the gaming market, they are actually the little guy trying to break in to a market controlled by two giants. People are still quick to criticize them for their horrible hardware failure rate...but on the other hand, applaud them for admitting it and changing their repair policy so that they fix their mistake.
So yeah, I don't think it is unreasonable to despise MS for what they do in the OS market but still have a 360. If you really get down to it, if you refused to buy from anyone who had questionable business methods, you wouldn't be able to own a console period.
No, I don't understand. Please give me the law that they are breaking. I don't think Valve is thinking of the poor Thai's. I think they are trying to maximize profit (as any company that wants to stay in business does). The only difference in this case than any other is that Valve actually has the ability to enforce the region through steam.
Unfortunately for you, you can't region lock your consulting. But if you could, I am sure you would.
Argh. I will reply to myself before someone else does. No, you moron. Read the whole summary before you post.
Isn't it illegal to refuse cash as long as it isn't paid in pennies?
Now that they have a stable version that is static, the possibilities are endless. Conceivably, they could now print these things as books! I imagine this will be a lot of content, but they could split it up in to multiple books for each letter of the alphabet. That way, we can have access to this information 24/7 without the need of the Internet! Truly, amazing times we live in.
How is the Wii controller not just an incremental improvement? It still has buttons, d-pads, etc. They just added motion sensing to it and changed the shape to optimize it for that.
That's stupid. Does Valve actually hire from the poorest countries? You aren't allowed because they said you aren't. And they have technical means of enforcing that.
The orange box was a good deal at the regular price. I don't feel ripped off in the least.
A company is allowed to charge you what they want for a product. The list price of many things can be negotiated down. They sold a region locked version for cheaper in one area and a non-region locked game in another country. There is nothing illegal about it. Everyone is hypocritical in some way. But I don't see how Valve trying to maximize their profits is hypocritical though. That is what a business is supposed to do. Maybe you should look up the definition of hypocrite. It is saying one thing and doing another. They never said they weren't going to region lock. Taking advantage of globalization while making a product that you can't import isn't hypocritical at all. It is what everyone would do if they could. Steam allows Valve to do this.
Don't like it, don't buy it. I don't think they will notice or care. They make a good game and sell it at a very reasonable price.
You assume I share the views of Slashdot.
It's not just because I like Valve...if it was any company that did this I wouldn't be upset. People don't even give them a chance to react. I do think there are moral issues involved in this. Morality is doing what is "right". Obviously, you may define this differently than I do...but I think it is right to pay the company what they ask for. If they sell it cheaper in another market and want to restrict it to that market, then they can choose to do so. And now they just have a mechanism to enforce that. I think we also have very different ideas of what is common sense.
Do we really need an analogy to understand this? They bought software from somewhere they shouldn't have. It ended up messing up their account. Give Valve a few days to come up with a technical solution instead of crying bloody murder about DRM. You have avenues to avoid this...that is, don't buy their product if you don't like it. Unfortunately for you, Steam "just works" for the great majority of people and they happen to make damn fine games as well. I think I'll go relax by playing some TF2 now.
If someone bought a gun that said "Shoots backwards in North America" and then buys it and shoots it in North America, I don't feel to sorry for them.
Good point! I never thought of that. Oh wait, I did, it had to do with all the other text around the text you quoted. Try reading that :)
See, I don't think you even read the post. 1) I stated that I used to feel the way that person did, so I was showing that I understood their emotion, thus validating their opinion (though I don't thing I really need to bother with such touchy feely stuff) 2) I did not tell them to get used to it, I told them that they just had to accept it like I had to. This term is not going away (particularly with editors using it) and it is such a waste of anger to be making a big deal about this anymore (because as I stated in the second post, it is a valid term). Probably futile on my part...but when I am bored I don't mind going after the highly modded SKU whiners or the people who complain that they don't like reading about X on Slashdot.
It is amusing to me that you attack my maturity. If there was some sort of magical maturity meter that measured post maturity levels, I am afraid you wouldn't like the results. So let's go to pretend world where I did what you said and told the guy to "get used to it". If this is so heinous (and this seems to be a large part of your complaint), then you invalidate any credibility you even think you have when you say the same to me. Of course, I didn't even say that so your smug reply is laughable.
Let me state this though: I understand your point. It is a bad thing to just accept everything that is thrown at you because "that's the way it is". But what your post does is remove the context of the situation and adds in things that are unacceptable. I am not saying "accept things that aren't going to go away". I am saying accept that a term that is commonly used is going to continue to be used and it isn't hurting anyone.
One more thing from your post. With a Masters in CS, I thought pretty poorly of business people. Now that I am taking business classes it really opens my eyes to how things really work. It isn't a dubious distinction to do well in the business world and be business savvy. It is pretty much a requirement if you want to go anywhere in any career. Here's my gift to you: get over your bias and try to see the value of social groups other than your own.
What the hell are you talking about? Reading comprehension (or if you are in this situation, comprehension in general) is not your strong point. People tried to rip off Valve by buying region locked keys from Russia or Thailand where they are sold extremely cheap. Valve shut them off for being the little jerks that they are. The people then went out and did the "right thing" and bought the game legitimately through places like Circuit City. But when they tried to activate it, they already had a CD key in its place and were unable to install it on that steam account.
Now, I am not sure why you can't remove the CD key. I imagine they did it for piracy regions so people couldn't try multiple cd key to see which ones worked. This seems reasonable to me. This is a story of cheap people trying to rip off a company and getting screwed over because of it. I don't feel sorry for them at all and am confused why Slashdotters defend these morons. Yeah, I understand DRM is bad and annoying. But from a corporate standpoint, this looks like Steam is a DRM success because it is able to block people who try to abuse the system. The people can still play their game on another Steam account or get their money back one way or another.
The only thing that looks bad for Valve at this point is their customer service. Should people who now rectified their wrong doing by buying a copy be able to play? I think so. But right now it may not be technically feasible with the way the software is designed. I'd give Valve a few days to analyze the problem and decide how (or if) they will fix it.
There are a lot of arguments about the accuracy of that site. But ignoring those, did you even look at the link you posted? The PS3 has one spike where it shoots way up and then drops immediately. The 360 had a big spike as well (only slightly lower than the PS3), and the spike is much more fat (i.e. it sold a larger number for a longer period of time). From those charts, the 360 looks to be doing much better.
So you are comparing the use of a word that people find annoying to rape and murder. Are you completely nuts? You do understand there is more than a "slight" difference, right? If you don't, seek mental help.
The thing is, as much as people don't like the term, SKU is just another way of saying product or model. It is a business term that is appropriate. And while Slashdot isn't business oriented, I am learning very quickly that it helps to speak their jargon if you want to do well in the business world.
But call me names all you want. At least I have the guts to post what I believe and not hide behind AC.
I used to agree with you. Now I am just tired of people like you complaining about the word. It has been showing up for months. People have been whining about it for months. The term is not going away any time soon so just learn to accept it like I have.
Actually, I'm fine with SKU as long as I don't have to read the word meme. That one seems to have gone away thankfully.
This is fairly obvious, but people on here don't seem to get it: It is easy to innovate in a field that didn't exist before.
Wow...what a rosy little world you live in. Pirating games means that everyone is going to make great profit! Pirates are such nice people that when they don't pay for a game and like it they become an advertising agency that just pours money in to the company. It also keeps these pirates off the streets where they would be causing trouble. I never knew how fantastic pirating could be!
Fact of the matter is...if companies don't at least make some attempt to make it difficult to pirate something, then everyone would do that instead of paying for it. Then games just would not be made.
If you are too poor to buy games, then you really should be doing something about that rather than sitting around playing video games. You even give a good alternative (GameFly) to pirating.
Things that were cool to us when we were young seem better than things now because we can't get as excited about things as adults as we do as children. Children today might find Pong novel, but it isn't something that they will want to go back to again and again like people who were brought up on it. All these articles come off like a bunch of old people sitting around complaining about the youth today. You are now officially old. Move over and let the next generation decide what is fun for themselves.
Except that really isn't accurate. As soon as a few hundred people get in the same section of the galaxy the servers are unable to handle it. So, it's great that it can have 50k on a shard, but they would be better off having more servers and less people on each so the game would be more playable.
It's real draw is that it is a space MMO. It has a more difficult learning curve than other MMOs. It has somewhat harsh consequences. It is basically a playground for people who enjoy griefing. The single player part of the game is more boring and repetitive than any other MMO. And the multiplayer consists of sitting at gate and ganking people who have no chance. At the higher end you get large battles where whoever is lucky enough to get out of the lag first will win.
So yes, it appeals to the elitist prick portion of the population. Or people who wish they made Excel in to a game.
We are talking about gaming. I don't think you need to specify an OS when talking about PC gaming. You can assume it is Windows. If you are talking about gaming on a different OS..then you need to specify WINE, Mac, etc.